Nigeria Equity Watch | 21 July 2015 : Nigerian Equities Market Gains for the Second Consecutive Trading Session… NSE ASI rises 92bps

Lagos, Nigeria (Capital Markets in Africa) — The Nigerian equities market sustained uptrend as investors engaged in bargain hunting on the second trading day of the week. The ASI appreciated 92bps to close at 31,334.79 points. Similarly, market capitalization also added N98.2bn to close at N10.7tn. This was on the back of gains recorded in bellwether Consumer Goods, Oil & Gas and Industrial Goods stocks — NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+1.1%), NESTLE (+2.0%), OANDO (+10.2%) and DANGOTE CEMENT (+1.5%). Activity level however surged, as volume and value of equities traded rose 375.2% and 456.0% to 1.0bn units and N15.8bn respectively. This surge is traceable to the huge trading activities on ZENITH BANK – which    accounted for over 60.0% of volume and value of shares traded today.

Oil and Gas Index Rebounds to lead Sector Advancers
The Oil & Gas Index rebounded from a 10 day losing streak as it rose 2.9% due to price rally  in OANDO (+10.2%), FORTE OIL (+1.0%) and MOBIL (+3.3%). The Consumer Goods index trailed sector performance with a 1.1% gain, buoyed by gains in NESTLE (+2.0%) and NIEGRIAN BREWERES (+1.1%). This was followed by the Industrial Goods index which gained 0.7% driven by rally in DANGOTE CEMENT (+1.5%). On the flip side, Insurance index extended bearish run to the fourth trading session as it declined 1.5% – pressured by sell-offs in CONTINENTAL REINSURANCE (-13.6%); while banking index declined 0.2% attributable to losses sustained in GUARANTY (-1.9%) and UNITY BANK (-1.6%).

Market Breadth Closes Positive
Market breadth measured by advancer-decliner ratio closed positive today at 1.4x (28 advancers vs 20 decliners). OANDO (+10.2%), TRANSCORP (+9.9%) and FCMB (5.3%) led gains whilst CONTINENTAL REINSURANCE (-13.6%), TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS (-9.0%) and CCNN (-7.8%) led decliners. The two-day rally in the market has been mainly driven by bargain hunting positioning ahead of earnings releases by quoted companies. However, we    remain cautiously optimistic about market performance as earnings projections remain weak due to the weak macroeconomic conditions constituting operational difficulty for most companies. We continue to maintain that investors should adopt a medium to long term horizon in making investment decisions in the present market.

Source: Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited Research Team